EXCUKSION TO GLASTONBURY. 289 



esting remains of the ancient palace of the Bishops, occupied me throughout 

 the afternoon. The garden attached to the Bishop's Palace is kept in most 

 beautiful order, and exhibits many rare exotic trees and shrubs in high 

 beauty and luxuriance, the ample foliage of which, together with the 

 brilliant coloui'S in the tastefully-arranged parterres, contrast most harmo- 

 niously with the time-worn walls and ivy-crowned ruins of the ancient 

 episcopal hall. 



The range of the Mendips consists chiefly of the mountain limestone, 

 of the carboniferous series, and as is commonly the case in that formation, 

 is perforated by numerous fissures, which at the junction of the limestone 

 with the inferior .beds, frequently assume the form of caverns, in which, 

 by infiltration through the calcareous rocks, stalactitic concretions of sin- 

 gular forms are constantly developed. 



The cavern at Wookey is one of the most extensive of these "sunless 

 caves," penetrating the rock to a depth of two hundred yards; it is how- 

 ever by no means remarkable for its stalactites, in which respect it must 

 yield the palm to Cox's cavern at Cheddar, which, though small, exhibits, 

 in an exquisite degree, those strange fantastic forms, in which the freakish 

 hand of Nature delights, as it were, to try its plastic skill in moulding 

 shapes the most bizarre and quaint; or in a spirit of humorous travesty, 

 counterfeits objects the most ordinary and familiar, as witness the 'string 

 of five turkeys,' the 'loaf of bread,' and the 'fat goose' in Cox's cavern, 

 which really exhibit a grotesque resemblance to the objects whose names 

 they bear. Perhaps, however, the folds of drapery festooned from the 

 fissures, and so thin as to be transparent, and the stalagmites rising to 

 the height of six or eight feet from the floor of the cave, perfectly cylin- 

 drical, and preserving throughout a diameter of little more than an inch, 

 are amongst the most remarkable of these petrifactions. But when we 

 come to reflect upon the lapse of time which must have passed since, drop 

 by drop, these marvellous forms have been elaborated, the mind is lost in 

 the vast perspective, and endeavours in vain to realise the moment when 

 the drop of water, which, at intervals of half-minutes, falls 'drip,' 'drip,' 

 upon the apex of that slender column, was first precipitated from the 

 newly-opened fissure above. In spite of the theory of 'prochronism' in 

 creation, I must take leave to entertain the opinion that these concretions 

 date their origin from a period far anterior to the appearance of Adam 

 upon the earth; and yet, geologically speaking, they are of comparatively 

 late date — late, that is as compared with the vast thickness of the under- 

 lying strata, since ;the gravel upon which they rest on the floor of the 

 cavern is undoubtedly attributable to the 'newest tertiary' period. 



The cliffs of Cheddar reminded me strongly of those at Matlock, in 

 Derbyshire, to which they bear considerable resemblance, as well in external 



